In view of the disgusting opening ceremonies at the recent opening of the 2024 Olympics in Paris, it’s worth reminded people that there are some–probably many–who have admired this work even if they’re not sympathetic with its message.
Two of those were Iranian friends of mine, which I talk about in my post The Last Supper, the Iranians and the Perfect Dissertation, and their reaction to the replica I had in my office (pictured above):
One day one of my Iranian colleagues came to see me. She was going through the program with her husband. The two of them exuded the charm and sophistication that the Iranians are famous for. But she was drawn to the ceramic sculpture based on Leonardo da Vinciās The Last Supper. It had been given to me when I was working for my church a decade earlier. You can see it in detail at the top of the post.
Not too long after that her husband came to see me. He too was drawn to the sculpture. I was amazed; the Iranians tended to be secular and this couple was from Isfahan, known for its own architecture.
The blunt truth is that, since the French Revolution, there has been a very vocal and powerful segment of French society which has hated Christianity with a passion, are not shy about saying so and enforce things like laĆcitĆ© on their society. The people who put together this show were the successors of those who enthroned a prostitute as the “Goddess of Reason” at NĆ“tre-Dame during the French Revolution. Under those circumstances it’s amazing not only that they are repairing the cathedral but that they didn’t tear it down back in the day. (The Soviets did that to some of their cathedrals, only to rebuild them after the end of Communism.)
That’s also the reason why, even though I took years of French in prep schools, I never was exposed to the likes of Pascal and especially Bossuet, and had to read them later.
My favourite reaction to this is that of Larry the Cat:
The Titanic went to the bottom–and that’s where the West is headed if it keeps this up.
Positive Infinity 